Animals with Careers - Luke

Hi my name is Luke and I have been the Pawsonal Assistant at Cosaig cottage in Innerleithen, Scottish Borders for the last five years.

I am very serious about my career and also careering round the place in general.

There are four key aspects to my role:

First, as a Tour Guide, I check out all our local walks and places of interest so my humans can advise guests about the best places to visit. This is challenging and tiring work and even involves popping into some of the local shops to sample the quality of treats on offer. I also occasionally need to check out the softness of the local pubs’ carpets. As I say it’s a tough job … but somebody has to do it.

My appointment as Cosaig’s top model was a no-brainer. You will see my rugged good looks improve every scene.

Local professional photographer, Graham Riddell, even used me for his pawtfolio and to practise his doggy photoshoots.

I make sure that I keep myself in excellent condition by eating regularly and taking plenty of naps.

The occasional spa treatment keeps the complexion in tip-top order too.

The job of Dog treat tester also falls to me. When you arrive at Cosaig you can be assured that the dog treats always meet my exacting standards.

Finally, unsurprisingly, sometimes our guests make a special request for me to call round.

Then my job is to meet and greet them on the park outside the cottage. Cosaig is a magic dog box, a bit like the Tardis really; it’s just amazing how many dogs seem to live there.

Every time I pop round a new dog appears! I especially love it when I can put a name to a Twitter pal’s pawfile or I get to meet a Facebook friend. My humans say I am very (or is it too?) enthusiastic which I know makes me ideal for the job.

Depending on our guests I might take them for a walk or show them my favourite fields. Sometimes we even get to have zoomies together. Apparently I am not always a very good sport. I have been told I am a bit of a show off …which I think is the unkind way of saying I lead by example. The tips tend to be good, although sometimes the humans “save them for Later” whoever Later is.

The funniest thing in my role? Well this is a hard one to answer. There are so many happy memories but strangely they seem to make the humans’ cheeks go all rosy.

One of the best days ever was showing the lovely Izzy, Neville and Barney (OTRB) our local spa. We really went for the cardio workout and then naturally relaxed in the mud bath. For some reason the humans were not impressed and poor Izzy was subjected to the outside “shower” back at the cottage.

Of course when I take over the running of the cottage it will be the humans showering outside.

Meanwhile I take my professional responsibility to educate the present owners very seriously.